1819

Ten years after his fathers premature death, eighteen-year-old Robert Allston witnessed the estate's division. One hundred and thirty slaves appeared for the division, faces plastered with looks of terror. In a classic rationalization of a slave master, Robert's mother wrote, I feel for them, but it is evident they all cannot belong to me. By the time Roberts younger brother and mother...

In the early nineteenth century, the country was concerned with slavery in America and getting rid of it in a timely manner with as little consequences as possible. In order to help this concern, The American Colonization Society was founded in 1817. Border States such as Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia had the most chapters because of their locations and ideas about slavery. In Virginia, many...

It was a discovery for the ages. John Clifford's exploratory work in the hills of rural Kentucky had uncovered an extinct specimen key to the development of the field of naturalism: the univalve flinty shell. In 1819, the good scientist unabashedly declared it highly valuable and [it] will be deemed as such by all the enlightened naturalists of America and Europe. In Garrard and Estill counties,...

In March of 1818, Jackson invaded Florida, brought down Fort Negro, and seized parts of Florida, which was under Spanish control. Jackson's actions caused international repercussions. Spain protested the invasion, which led to the halt of negotiations to buy Spanish Florida. The invasion, also, led Britain to protest the execution of two of its subjects who had never entered the United State...

The Missouri Territory had requested admission to the US as a slave state as early as 1818. This otherwise routine petition became a complicated national debate over slavery. At the time, the nation held a balance of eleven slave and eleven free states, and although Missourians were undivided in their desire for unrestricted slavery, implementing such a system in a new state could cause bitter...

In Augusta, Georgia, Henry Hartford Cumming released his slave Henry Todd from the bonds of slavery in 1809. However, the freed African American didn't leave the Augusta area. Instead, he waited until he could purchase and earn his path outside of the region. When Henry decided to leave, Cumming, in 1819, asked for and received the signatures of many white, male aristocrats. They all endorsed...

Upon hearing rumors that the Seminoles were gathering en masse in Pensacola, Florida, General Andrew Jackson and his army invaded and took control of the town, dispersing the Seminole gathering in the process. After the war, General Jackson faced much criticism for his actions in the war, both in the press and in a formal investigation conducted by the Senate; his seizure of Pensacola was not exempt...

On the 22nd of April, 1819, I. Darnet wrote a detailed letter to Dr. Henry Jackson, of Athens, Georgia, describing the Americans named in European appointments. Within his letter, he explained that with the advice and consent of the Senate, the President had assigned Henry Preble to the position of consul of the United States for Palermo, Italy. Additionally, Darnet voiced his opinion that he believed...

Citizens of Staunton, Virginia came together June 15, 1819 to navigate the pitfalls of the antebellum economy. Their official business was to take into consideration the depreciation of the notes of certain banks, for the economy was at the bottom of a large dip - the Panic of 1819. The citizens decided that the notes of the State Bank of North Carolina should no longer be received at normal value,...

On June 21, 1819, newspapers on the East coast began to report on the men of Rapides Parish, in the town of Alexandria, who had begun to mobilize for war against the Spanish controlling the province of Texas on Louisiana's western border. The only trouble was that the United States government had not declared war against Spain. In fact, the governments of the United States and Spain were currently...